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At First Round Capital, we build and deliver dozens of products,
services and events to our portfolio every year - and today I’m
excited to announce our newest experiment: hackPR - an
entirely new way for press and startups to connect.

Through building, investing and supporting over 200 companies,
we've seen the disconnect between reporters and startups
countless times. Reporters are constantly seeking
interesting new people, companies and trends to cover – and I
can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been contacted by a
reporter/blogger asking me questions like “do you have any
portfolio companies that have been sued for patent infringement”
or “what are some crazy things that startup companies do to
attract and retain good employees”. And startups are always
looking to connect with those same reporters. These two
parties often struggle to find each other and lack an efficient
marketplace to connect.

hackPR is our attempt at creating a marketplace between press and
startups. By giving reporters the tools to connect directly with
companies and entrepreneurs, we hope to provide the means
for more in-depth journalism while helping startups gain
additional PR opportunities. Here's how we think it will
work:

A journalist will be able to send a request out to a range of
startups based on size, sector or location with just a few
clicks. Their request could range from anything like "I'm
doing a piece on collaborative consumption, what are the startups
I should profile?" to "We're doing a piece on college recruiting
in startups - have any great stories on how you won a candidate?"

Based on profile data that startups will complete, the
appropriate startups will be able to respond.

If the journalist is interested, a match will be made – and
the responses will be sent to the journalist

The journalist will receive the contact information of the
entrepreneur – and the reporter can make the decision to reach
out or not. (Since the startup will not get the reporters
contact information, the reporter will not get spammed.)

This service will be available to any venture backed startup –
not just the First Round portfolio. Like most
marketplaces, scale matters and we think everyone will be better
off if it's an open platform.

This is not a new idea – there are other similar services like
Profnet (which charges companies to participate)
or HARO (which is not limited to startups). But
after using both of those services, I think there is real value
that can be delivered by creating a platform
exclusively for venture backed startups and the
press that covers them…

We plan on launching the first iteration of hackPR in December
2012 – but be sure to grab your place in line as access will be
opened very slowly to build the highest quality marketplace.
We'll be aggressively iterating on our product as we approach
launch – so if you're a startup or journalist, be sure to tell us
what you'd like to see.

I strongly encourage any interested reporters or entrepreneurs to
sign up at www.hackpr.co today to gain early access and
help us beta test.